Gospel of John 6:22–71 Catholic Bible study Lesson 8

The Gospel According to John:
An Encounter with Grace & Truth

Lesson 8 I Am the Living Bread
the Gospel According to John 6:22–71

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Rosarium Virginis Mariae (Rosary of the Virgin Mary)
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the Gospel According to John
cross references in the Gospel According to John
next lesson: Rivers of Living Water

This material coordinates with Lesson 8 on pages 43–48 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”—the Gospel According to John 20:30–31

welcome to our in-depth study of the Gospel According to John
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 25-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to our free lesson videos, as well as to a glossary and cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-study question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Gospel According to John 6:1–21
In Lesson 7 A Lad with Five Barley Loaves, Jesus, returned to Galilee from Jerusalem, tests Philip by asking how Jesus and the disciples can buy enough bread to feed the multitude who’ve followed Jesus to the Lake of Tiberias. Although Philip is unable to offer any viable suggestion, Jesus uses five barley loaves and two fish from a lad in the crowd to create enough food for everyone—with 12 baskets of fragments left. Aware that that the people are about to take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdraws to the hills by himself. His disciples climb in a boat and head across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum. A strong wind begins blowing, and when the disciples are several miles from land they’re frightened to see Jesus walking on the sea. “It is I; do not be afraid,” Jesus tells them. Then the disciples take Jesus into their boat. The Evangelist stresses that the boat then immediately arrives on land.

map notes—a very public ‘I AM’ statement
“Jesus’ Third ‘I AM’ Statement” on page 46 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth is both shocking and much more public than anything Jesus previously has said. Consider how the way in which Jesus relates to the crowd who’ve followed him across the Sea of Galilee might be a reflection of the way in which they’ve been approaching him. What might be the primary reason why so many people are expressing an interest in Jesus at this particular time in the narrative of the Fourth Gospel? With what religious feast does the Evangelist appear to be linking the events described in this section in the sixth chapter? (Consider whether this is the same feast referred to in the Gospel According to John 4:4.) Click on the image (right) to enlarge the map, which appears on page 47 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

Jesus doesn’t see himself as another Moses (01:23:24)
In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses the ways in which Jesus differs from Moses in the sixth chapter in the Gospel According to John. This Gospel comparison between Jesus and Moses hinges on the fact that many of the earliest Christians were Jews, whose religion of Judaism was based on the belief that the only way of pleasing God was by following the law of Moses. Matthew also returns to the key theme of God and Jesus having life within themselves, something first encountered in the Gospel According to John 5:26 and then expanded upon in this lesson in “The Eucharist Is a Share in Divinity” on page 47 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. You can follow along as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 8, “I Am the Living Bread,” on pages 43–48 in the study book.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about the connection to Lesson 5?
In the Gospel According to John 4:34, the Evangelist began setting the stage for the Bread of Life discourse by recounting Jesus’ description of his own food as doing the will of God the Father and accomplishing the work that he was sent by God to do. In the Gospel According to John 6:27, Jesus once again brings up the idea of work when he cautions the crowd not to labor for food that perishes. Jesus goes on to explain that he’s able to provide men and women with food that endures to eternal life. (Tami Palladino’s illustration of Jesus and the lad with five barley loaves from Lesson 7 appears on the map, “Key Events in the Gospel According to John,” on page 146 of the study book.)

? What might be motivating Jesus to begin associating food and work almost as soon as the crowd of people catches up with him in Capernaum?
? What important point is Jesus emphasizing about the sacrament of the Eucharist when he uses the word eternal to describe the kind of life that he’s able to offer humanity?
? Consider what the crowd has in mind when they express interest in learning what they must do to be doing the works of God.
? How does Jesus define the work of God?
? How might present-day vernacular be used to describe to another person what this work of God entails?
? What’s unusual about the crowd then asking Jesus to perform a new sign?
? Since the crowd hasn’t mentioned Moses in this exchange, consider why Jesus now brings up Moses’ name.

the Eucharist seen through a different eye
Synoptic is a Greek word that means “with the same eye.” The Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because their authors view the life of Jesus from a similar perspective. The different viewpoint of the Evangelist John is apparent in the sixth chapter in the Gospel According to John, in which Jesus explains the Eucharist in a lengthy discourse following the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Many other such differences exist. Instead of looking at the Gospels as competing accounts, each should be seen as contributing to a composite picture of Jesus.

read the Catechism—radical teaching
The Bread of Life discourse contains radical biblical teaching about the sacrament of the Eucharist. Without this section in the Fourth Gospel, the sacrament that the Church refers to as the “source and summit of the Christian life” would be considerably more difficult for men and women to approach. As it is, transubstantiation remains a supernatural mystery. What Jesus makes extremely clear, however, is the necessity of the sacrament for eternal life. Things don’t get much clearer than this statement, which Jesus makes in the Gospel According to John 6:53: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church devotes a whopping 97 paragraphs—beginning with paragraph 1322—specifically to teaching about the sacrament of the Eucharist. Of particular interest is the section beginning with paragraphs 1373–1381 explaining the presence of Christ in the sacrament by the power of his word and the Holy Spirit.

1381 “That in this sacrament are the true Body of Christ and his true Blood is something that ‘cannot be apprehended by the senses,’ says St. Thomas, ‘but only by faith, which relies on divine authority.’ For this reason, in a commentary on [the Gospel According to] Luke 22:19 (‘This is my body which is given for you.’), St. Cyril says: ‘Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the Savior in faith, for since he is the truth, he cannot lie.'”

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.

‘eat my flesh’—you could look it up in our archives
For a somewhat surprising insight into what Jesus is talking about in his Eucharistic-themed Bread of Life discourse, you can read “eat my flesh” in Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

what’s so terrible about murmuring?
In focusing on Jesus’ powerful words about the sacrament of the Eucharist, it’s easy to overlook some of the other important things in this section of the sixth chapter in the Fourth Gospel. A strong parallel is drawn between the Jews who murmur because Jesus casts himself as the bread come down from heaven and the Israelites who murmured in discontent about having nothing but manna to eat in the wilderness. In both cases, God views murmuring in an extremely negative light.

In our present-day world, we probably would say that the Jews and Israelites whined, complained, or griped about their situations instead of that they murmured. This makes it somewhat easier for us to understand the problem, and it also should make it easier for us to ask ourselves what situations in our own lives might be causing us to murmur and complain.

a sacrament of gratitude
It’s not accidental that all of this talk about murmuring occurs in connection with God providing life-giving food for his people—manna in the wilderness in the Old Testament, and Jesus as the bread of life in the sacrament of the Eucharist instituted in the New Testament. Despite God’s generous providential care, his people complain. The word Eucharist is from the Greek, and it means “thanksgiving.” Instead of giving thanks, God’s people choose to whine. It’s no wonder that God finds murmuring displeasing. You can learn more by reading “Eucharist,” the vocabulary box on page 46 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

Q&A—a verse that’s easy to misinterpret
A participant in this study is concerned about the potential implications of what Jesus tells the murmuring crowd in the Gospel According to John 6:44: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Q: This verse seems to me to support the idea of predestination, an idea endorsed by some Protestant communities that a person’s acceptance or rejection of Jesus is predetermined, and because of this, an individual has no choice in the matter.

A: read the Catechism—That indeed is one way that the Gospel According to John 6:44 might be interpreted—but not by Catholics. While the Church encourages all Catholics to read and study the Bible, it also has established guidelines for how we are to interpret Scripture. Essentially, there are only two guidelines to worry about: 1) We can’t come to a conclusion about a particular verse or passage that contradicts other biblical text, and 2) we can’t interpret Scripture in a way that contradicts Church teaching. Staying on solid footing requires that we have a grasp of what else is in the Bible as well as what the Church teaches. This is a tall order, and is why before any Turning to God’s Word Bible study goes to the publisher, it’s submitted to Church authorities for an imprimatur.

Paragraph 600 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church mentions predestination as God’s eternal plan, but Church teaching is careful to define that this includes the possibility of free-will choice for every person.

600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.

read the Catechism—freedom is a gift from God
It’s reasonably well known that Catholics don’t subscribe to predestination as understood by many Protestant denominations, but not every Catholic can explain why not. The reason is straightforward: It denies free will. Faith is a gift granted by God the Father. It’s available to all, but not all choose to accept. Some of the most pertinent Church teaching regarding free will can be found in paragraphs 1731 and 1732 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

1731 Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

1732 As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise of blame, merit or reproach.

what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending?
What might Jesus be talking about in the Gospel According to John 6:62 when he asks: “Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before?” How would you answer Jesus’ question? “The Son of Man Ascending” on page 45 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth may shed some light on this question Jesus asks all of his followers. You can learn more about Old Testament ideas of religious ascension in Lesson 16 Isaac Blesses Jacob; Jacob’s Dream at Bethel in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.

for additional reflection
Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse can provide Christians with much to think about, and the Evangelist also addresses a number of other ideas in this section of his Gospel narrative. The following questions are designed to help readers begin to form their own thoughts and ideas related to the Gospel According to John 6:22–71. For more reflection questions, refer to the introduction to this lesson on page 43 in the study book, The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

? Ascension is a big theme to watch for as we move forward in our study of the FourthGospel. In addition to the Gospel According to John 6:62, under what circumstances has Jesus previously directly mentioned something to do with ascending?
? How has the Evangelist indirectly called attention to themes of ascent and descent in the biblical text for previous lessons.
? Consider why Jesus seems to bring up ascension when dealing with people whose faith appears particularly weak.
? What does Jesus’ Ascension into heaven represent for humanity?
? In the Gospel According to John 6:63, Jesus likens his words to Spirit and life. What might Jesus be suggesting that pertains to present-day liturgical practice?
? How are Jesus’ words related to the sacrament of the Eucharist?
? Consider why Jesus continues to cast himself in the role of things instead of people (Jacob’s ladder instead of the patriarch Jacob, the temple in Jerusalem instead of the priests and religious leaders, bread from heaven instead of Moses).

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Gospel According to John 6:22–71 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Gospel According to John.

God our Father, you gave the Israelites manna in the wilderness.
Help us to appreciate the gift of the sacrament of the Eucharist
that you have given in Jesus and grant us understanding
of our great need for this spiritual sustenance.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lesson 9 Rivers of Living Water—the Gospel According to John 7:1–53
Lesson 7 A Lad with Five Barley Loaves—the Gospel According to John 6:1–21

you also may like our study of Scripture & the Rosary (digital only)
Scripture & the Rosary: New Testament Mysteries, Old Testament Parallels, a 26-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, looks at the biblical foundations of the Rosary. The study includes lessons on Pope St. John Paul II’s Rosarium Virginis Mariae (Rosary of the Virgin Mary), the Apostles’ Creed, and the Luminous Mysteries as well as the original 15 Mysteries of the Rosary. Color photographs of stained glass windows depict key scenes in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Free digital lessons rotate throughout the year on our website.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.